Demonstration at the border: Danes on the streets

On 21 April 2012 about 13 000 people gathered
in Flensburg for a demonstration. On 6 May there will be elections in Germany’s
northernmost federal land – and according to some forecasts the party of the Danish
minority may have a possible role as king-maker. Minority politics at the
German-Danish border is under a lot of pressure.

Circa 50 000 people who belong to the Danish
minority are living in the German federal land of Schleswig-Holstein, in the
southern part of the historic Duchy of Schleswig. The Danish minority in
Germany (South Schleswig) and the German minority in Denmark (North Schleswig)
came into being after the plebescite of 1920.

School protests

The protest
of the Danish minority, which led to a mass demonstration with 13 000
participants on 21 April 2012, is aimed at the minority policy of the regional
government of Schleswig-Holstein. In 2010, the government in Kiel decided to
cut funding for the Danish minority schools from 100% of the grants to 85%.
These “asymmetrical cuts” led to considerable protest among the Danish minority,
but also the highest levels of Danish policy makers were alarmed. The very
peaceful coexistence in the German-Danish border region, characterised by
cooperation and friendship, is not something that can be taken for granted; it
gradually grew after years of national-political antagonism.

The former
Danish head of government Løkke Rasmussen considered the issue to be so serious
that he discussed it directly with chancellor Angela Merkel a number of times.
Because of significant external pressure the federal government in Berlin
decided to step in and transfered 3,5 million Euro to the Danish School
Association in 2010 and 2011, to compensate for part of the the financial
damage (cuts of circa 4.7 million Euro).

The Danish
minority was pleased with financial support from Berlin – but held firm to its
demand for 100% equality for the Danish minority schools. Among other things it
collected 51 000 signatures with a petition-action.

The
government in Kiel reasons as follows: the Danish schools are doing much better
than comparable German schools. They also receive money from Denmark and what
is more, not all school students in the establishments are “genuinely Danish”.
The main argument for the proposed cuts however is financial – namely the
consolidation of the budget of the federal land.

The Danish
state funds the Danish minority with grants of a sum of around 70 million Euro
annually. The Danish School Association maintains 46 schools with 5600 school
students and 55 kindergartens with around 2000 children.

Election campaign

On 6 May
the regional parliament – the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag – will be newly
elected. At the moment a conservative-liberal coalition under prime-minister
Peter Harry Carstensen is governing. The Danish minority is represented with
four members, and achieved 4 percent of the votes at the latest elections. The
Danish minority party SSW (South Schleswig Voters' Association) is exempted from
the 5% election threshold. Most surveys suggest that the outcome on the evening
of the election might be very close. A coalition of social-democrats and the
green party is opposing the sitting government of conservatives and liberals.
SSW, according to some recent opinion-polls, may end up in the position of a
king-maker. If that happens, it is already clear how SSW will decide. It will
decide against the existing government, especially because of the (see above)
ruinous minority policy it pursued. For the first time SSW is ready to become
part of government. From people close to the governing coalition can be heard
that although SSW may have full-fledged mandates (as follows from the minority
provisions in the Bonn-Copenhagen Agreements of 1955), SSW should seriously
reconsider its role as king-maker, as it is exempted from the
election-threshold.